1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to generating and executing voice enabled web applications within a hypertext markup language (HTML) and hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) framework.
2. Description of Related Art
The evolution of the public switched telephone network has resulted in a variety of voice applications and services that can be provided to individual subscribers and business subscribers. Such services include voice messaging systems that enable landline or wireless subscribers to record, playback, and forward voice mail messages. However, the ability to provide enhanced services to subscribers of the public switched telephone network is directly affected by the limitations of the public switched telephone network. In particular, the public switched telephone network operates according to a protocol that is specifically designed for the transport of voice signals; hence any modifications necessary to provide enhanced services can only be done by switch vendors that have sufficient know-how of the existing public switched telephone network infrastructure.
An open standards-based Internet protocol (IP) network, such as the World Wide Web, the Internet, or a corporate intranet, provides client-server type application services for clients by enabling the clients to request application services from remote servers using standardized protocols, for example hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). The web server application environment can include web server software, such as Apache, implemented on a computer system attached to the IP network. Web-based applications are composed of HTML pages, logic, and database functions. In addition, the web server may provide logging and monitoring capabilities.
In contrast to the public switched telephone network, the open standards-based IP network has enabled the proliferation of web based applications written by web application developers using ever increasing web development tools. Hence, the ever increasing popularity of web applications and web development tools provides substantial resources for application developers to develop robust web applications in a relatively short time and an economical manner. However, one important distinction between telephony-based applications and web-based applications is that telephony-based applications are state aware, whereas web-based applications are stateless.
In particular, telephony applications are state aware to ensure that prescribed operations between the telephony application servers and the user telephony devices occur in a prescribed sequence. For example, operations such as call processing operations, voicemail operations, call forwarding, etc., require that specific actions occur in a specific sequence to enable the multiple components of the public switched telephone network to complete the prescribed operations.
The web-based applications running in the IP network, however, are state-less and transient in nature, and do not maintain application state because application state requires an interactive communication between the browser and back-end database servers accessed by the browsers via a HTTP-based web server. However, an HTTP server provides asynchronous execution of HTML applications, where the web applications in response to reception of a specific request in the form of a URL from a client, instantiate a program configured for execution of the specific request, send an HTML web page back to the client, and terminate the program instance that executed the specific request. Storage of application state information in the form of axe2x80x9ccookiexe2x80x9d is not practical because some users prefer not to enable cookies on their browser, and because the passing of a large amount of state information as would normally be required for voice-type applications between the browser and the web application would substantially reduce the bandwidth available for the client.
Commonly-assigned, copending application Ser. No. 09/480,485, filed Jan. 11, 2000, entitled Application Server Configured for Dynamically Generating Web Pages for Voice Enabled Web Applications the disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference, discloses an application server that executes a voice-enabled web application by runtime execution of extensible markup language (XML) documents that define the voice-enabled web application to be executed. The application server includes a runtime environment that establishes an efficient, high-speed connection to a web server. The application server, in response to receiving a user request from a user, accesses a selected XML page that defines at least a part of the voice application to be executed for the user. The XML page may describe any one of a user interface such as dynamic generation of a menu of options or a prompt for a password, an application logic operation, or a function capability such as generating a function call to an external resource. The application server then parses the XML page, and executes the operation described by the XML page, for example dynamically generating an HTML page having voice application control content, or fetching another XML page to continue application processing. In addition, the application server may access an XML page that stores application state information, enabling the application server to be state-aware relative to the user interaction. Hence, the XML page, which can be written using a conventional editor or word processor, defines the application to be executed by the application server within the runtime environment, enabling voice enabled web applications to be generated and executed without the necessity of programming language environments.
Hence, web programmers can write voice-enabled web applications, using the teachings of the above-incorporated application Ser. No. 09/480,485, by writing XML pages that specify respective voice application operations to be performed. The XML documents have a distinct feature of having tags that allow a web browser (or other software) to identify information as being a specific kind or type of information. Hence, the XML documents define the application to be executed by the application server within the runtime environment, enabling voice enabled web applications to be generated and executed without the necessity of programming language environments.
Web-based instant messaging applications have gained popularity since the applications provide a user immediate notification of a message from another party. More particularly, if a user is online and is running an instant messaging application, the user is registered with a server that tracks user sessions and activity. When the user sends a message to another party, the message is immediately apparent to the other party if the other party is online and a subscriber to the messaging service. If the other party is not online, the message is queued and can be retrieved at a later time. In this way, a user can respond if and when the user pleases, but the user has immediate knowledge of the other party""s response. This type of communication is useful but limited, since all parties who wish to communicate with instant messages must be registered with the server using a proprietary application and must use a computer to employ the application to send and receive instant messages.
There is a need for an arrangement that enables users to deploy a scalable, open standards based instant messaging system on an open standards based network such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
These and other needs are attained by the present invention, where an application server, configured for executing a messaging application defined by XML documents, provides an application runtime environment configured for dynamically generating, in response to a HTTP request, a first hypertext markup language (HTML) document for recording a voice message by a sending party. The application runtime environment is configured for determining whether the receiving party is available to receive the voice message. The application runtime environment selectively generates a second HTML page having instructions to interrupt a present voice application session of the receiving party for playing the voice message, based on the determined availability, for the receiving party.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method in an application server for executing a messaging application. The method includes receiving an HTTP request for execution of an instant messaging application operation for a sending party. A selected extensible markup language (XML) document is accessed in response to reception of the HTML request. A first HTML page is generated based on the XML document for recording a voice message by the sending party. A registry is accessed to determine whether a receiving party is available to receive the voice message. A second HTML page is generated for the receiving party having instructions for playing the voice message for the receiving party.
Hence voice-based instant messaging services may be deployed on a platform that is customizable, scalable, and built upon open standards such as Internet protocol. By preserving multiple sessions, parties involved in instant messaging can suspend their present session or activity for a moment to create a new session to exchange audio messages and when finished, can instantly resume the suspended session.
Additional advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the present invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.